Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Happy seventh day of Christmas Jackson & Andrew! Santa will
be here in just 18 days! Santa heard that you love marching bands so he created
a parade with bands and floats for you and the other children! Have fun at the
Christmas Parade and don’t forget your letter for Santa!

We arrived for the parade early enough to claim a pretty good spot (note to self for next year: at least an hour and a half before parade time would have gotten the great spot) and had a picnic lunch while we waited. It was deceivingly cold--the weather app said high 50s but it felt like 40s with a breeze and lots of moisture in the air. Regardless, it was colder than we had prepared for and very grateful for that picnic blanket to wrap up in! As is typical, the adults seemed to mind the cold more than the kids did!

Just some of the boys' favorites out of the 100 or so entries....

A cold day meant that I got lots of snuggles with both of my boys though!

This was our view for most of the parade. =)

And finally, just the guy we had been waiting for! Jackson and Andrew didn't forget their letters. And for the first time, Jackson wrote the big guy's name all by himself. Love that 4 year old penmanship!

Monday, December 8th, 2014

Happy eighth day of Christmas Jackson & Andrew! Santa will be
here in just 17 days! I know you have waited all year for this! Santa's
Wonderland! Enjoy a night with friends, a hayride and more Christmas lights
thank you can imagine! Be sure to take a good nap today!

Want to know the reason for this picture? Oh yes, picturesque purple trees and all of that, but really, we were waiting on the Acostas to get there and just trying to keep the boys occupied so they would stop playing with all of that rock gravel we are standing on. Andrew kept trying to throw it by the handful and Jackson was picking the rocks out one by one to add to his "treasure box" collection. I use the term "treasure" quite loosely. Boys. They were covered in dust and making mama a little irritated.

We made a beeline to the hayrides and only waited about 5 minutes. Go us!

See that maneuver Andrew is doing there? The "heck no, I'm not sitting in your lap" move? He desperately wanted to run around the hayride trailer. Um no. 2 is a delightful age, isn't it?

4, though, is absolutely perfect!

Jackson's favorite part--the ascension of Jesus from tomb to heaven displayed in thousands of LED lights. =)

We hung out in Santa's town for a bit then, got our requisite family photos in front of the Texas flag.